The Swedes Come Down Hard On The Pirate Bay

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Nearly two years after Swedish police raided the offices of The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent search engine, prosecutors in that country are finally ready to bring the site’s founders to court. But the Pirate Bay founders don’t seem particularly worried. They are not even hiring their own lawyers. Instead, they are letting the Swedish government pay their legal fees (although, maybe that’s the way the legal system works there). The WSJ has the details (no subscription required for this one). Excerpt:

Based on evidence collected in a 2006 raid on the offices of The Pirate Bay, Swedish prosecutors say that by the end of January they expect to charge the individuals who operate the file-sharing service with conspiracy to breach copyrights.

The Pirate Bay’s operators say they are expecting the charges and will prepare their defense with the aid of government-funded lawyers for a trial later this year. “We’re not worried,” says Fredrik Neij, a Pirate Bay co-founder. “We think the law is on our side.”

The Pirate Bay’s operators say they have been followed in recent weeks by camera-toting private detectives in foreign-registered cars. In September, they filed a police complaint claiming that MediaDefender, a U.S. counter-piracy company, had been hired by several Hollywood studios and music companies to hack into their site and shut it down.

MediaDefender, which itself was hacked by a shadowy group last year, denies the accusation. “We’re a reputable public company,” says Chief Executive Randy Saaf. “We’re not going to be doing hacking. That’s silly.”

Oh yeah, that would never happen. Private investigators working for big corporations would never do something like that. But wasn’t MediaDefender the name of a third-rate super hero who couldn’t get into the Hall of Justice?